A Retiree Health-Care ‘Fix’ That Isn’t

October 25, 2014 7:20 PM

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While their private-sector counterparts have received more attention, public-sector employees–particularly retirees–could face similar problems with dropped coverage. The Atlantic reported last week on the trend of cities in financial distress, from Detroit to Chicago to Sheboygan, Wis., reducing or eliminating coverage and seeking to use the insurance exchanges to get out of their health-care obligations to retirees. As one pension expert quoted in the Atlantic noted, “every public-sector employer is looking at the exchanges as a potential way to get out of the unfunded liabilities that the public sector is bearing.”

But transferring state and municipal retirees to insurance plans on the exchanges doesn’t reduce the amount of unfunded liabilities; it shifts the cost from state and local governments to Washington. Many of the retirees in question could qualify for federal premium and cost-sharing subsidies for th...